1001 FRAMES, A Film by Mehrnoush Alia
Iranian-American Mehrnoush Alia’s festival favorite, 1001 Frames, turns an audition into a nightmare of power, control and objectification
The Brooklyn-based filmmaker will debut her genre-blurring thriller for its New York Premiere at Brooklyn Film Festival on May 31, 2026
Official Selection:
World Premiere, Berlin International Film Festival 2025, Panorama
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2025, Winner - Film Forward Golden Alexander Best Feature Film Award and Fischer Audience Award
After making its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama in 2025, and a breakout festival run that includes winner of the Film Forward Golden Alexander Best Feature Film Award and Fischer Audience Award at the 2025 Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 1001 Frames, the feature directorial debut of Brooklyn-based and Iranian-American filmmaker Mehrnoush Alia, will make its New York premiere at Brooklyn Film Festival on Sunday, May 31 at 4:00 p.m. EST at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Alia and producer/actor Mohammad Aghebati will be in-person for a Q&A after the screening. For tickets, click here. The film has screened at more than a dozen festivals worldwide, building momentum as a notable arthouse title with global resonance.
Set within the confines of a black box studio, 1001 Frames follows a celebrated filmmaker (played by Aghebati) casting young women (performed by a stellar ensemble cast) for the role of Scheherazade in a horror adaptation of 1001 Nights. What begins as a conventional audition gradually destabilizes as the director’s methods become increasingly invasive. As the process intensifies, the presence of the director’s ex-wife, a collaborator and a mysterious outsider reframes the audition as a tightly controlled environment shaped by power, authorship and surveillance. The camera itself becomes implicated, shifting from passive observer to active instrument of control, while the women’s resistance exposes the structural imbalances at play.
Drawing on real testimonies, the film gives a glimpse into these women’s lives, stories of honor killing, abuse and worse. 1001 Frames merges scripted narrative with documentary texture, positioning itself at the intersection of formal experimentation and urgent social critique. The film engages directly with ongoing industry conversations around accountability and representation in the wake of #MeToo, while resonating with global movements such as “Women, Life, Freedom.” Rooted in Iran yet spanning cultural contexts from the Middle East to the United States, the film reframes the myth of Scheherazade not as a singular voice, but as a collective act of resistance, where storytelling becomes a means of survival, agency and defiance.
Content Advisory: 1001 Frames contains themes of sexual abuse, coercion and psychological distress related to power dynamics in an audition setting; viewer discretion advised.
“1001 Frames came from years of listening to real stories and trying to find a way to tell them with honesty, “ said Alia. “It’s partly inspired by a friend, an ambitious actress whose path was derailed by abuse during training and in the industry. I set it in an audition room because that space can feel like both a beginning and a trap, shaped by power, silence and expectation. Growing up in Iran, those limits on women stayed with me, even as the stories echo far beyond one place. I’m really excited to share the film with a New York audience at Brooklyn Film Festival, especially since I live in Brooklyn, to hear their reactions, and keep building a dialogue around this crucial issue.”
Crew:
Director/Writer: Mehrnoush Alia
Producers (Maaa Film, US/Iran): Mehrnoush Alia, Mohammad Aghebati
Producer (Distorted Pictures, Iran/Sweden): Sina Sharbafi
Cinematography: Hamed Hosseini Sangari
Editing: Mehrnoush Alia
Music: Ava Rasti
Sound Design: Amir Hossein Ghasemi
Production Design: Morteza Farbod, Hamed Hosseini Sangari
Casting: Mohammad Aghebati
Cast:
Mohammad Aghebati - Director
Mahin Sadri - Firoozeh
Leili Rashidi - Friend
Mahsa Rezaei - Actress
Behafarid Ghaffarian - Dorsa
And:
Fereshteh Aliyari, Maryam Arabzadeh, Aisan Ghanbari, Parastoo Ghorbani, Mahdieh Mohammadi, Dorsa Panjehband, Shayesteh Sajadi, Fatemeh Salehian, Helia Shadifar, Avin Taffakori
Iran/USA/Sweden | 2025 | 87 min | Digital | 4K
About the Director/Writer:
Mehrnoush Alia is an Iranian-American screenwriter and director. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Columbia University’s film school. She wrote and directed two narrative shorts, Faranak and Scheherazade, as well as a web-documentary, and several promotional videos. She also collaborated on several documentaries and has produced over a dozen short films. Alia is the co-founder of Maaa Art, a film and theater production company working between New York and Tehran. She is also an alumna of Berlinale Talents Campus.
Filmography:
Scheherazade (short film), 2015
Sang Saboor (Interactive documentary), 2019
Faranak (short film), 2021
At Eye Level (short documentary, director Iran
episode), 2022
1001 Frames (fiction feature), 2025
About the Producer/Actor:
Mohammad Aghebati is an award-winning Iranian director, actor and film producer. He has worked with directors such as Asghar Farhadi (Hero, Cannes Jury Prix, 2021) and played the lead in the Berlinale award winning feature film The Great Yawn (2024). His plays have toured internationally and been commissioned by places such as the Japan Foundation. Aghebati is also the producer of several short films and two feature films.
Follow 1001 Frames:
Web: https://www.loco-films.com/1001-frames
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaaaFilm/
###